The Burden of Interest.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 39, 1 December 1911, Page 15

The Burden of Interest.

By CITIZEN.

The Ward Party 13 shouting at the top of its voice that because, a- portion of our borrowed money is what is called earning interest, the huge debt is, to tdiat extent, no burden, to the country. It suits the Opposition, fi'om quite opposite motives, to endorse this palpable fallacy. Now let us <see what this phrase of "earning interest" means. It will not be disputed that at least four millions of money or moneys worth, are sent • out of the country every year for interest on Government and local bodies , loans—four pounds a year for every man, woman and child in New Zealand. Our titled Premier lias so accustomed us to think in millions that we hardly realise the magnitude of the sum. Look at it this way: How many men, working 44 ihours per week, &t a shilling an hour are required to earn four millions a year.? It requires no less than 35,000 men, working year in and year out, to earn the amount sent away every year for interest alone, without reducing the principle one penny. Yet at the New Zealand dinner in London last year, Ward laiighingly- remarked: "Wβ never think of the debt." The point lost sight of is that in the countries of Europe, and to a very small extent also in Australia, the interest on the public debt is circulated among the people who earn it. Here it is drained away 'to the other side of the world, and we have to go on borrowing to find the interest on previous loans. Ward's own speecn.es prove xhis. In. 1893, when Colonial Treasurer, he said: "The Government believes that borrowing is not necessary, and have decided to conduct the business of the country without having recourse to it. The policy of self-reliance has Borne fruit, and economy in both pxiblic and private life has assisted in bringing about a happier condition of things. Never in the previous , history of the colony were its prospects brighter. 5. In the .18 years since that time, he and his party have borrowed 40 millions, he himself being responsible for more than 18 millions in the last five years. This is what he said about the state of the country a few months ago : "If we ceased borrowing the population would leave New Zealand by thousands." It requires only a few more years of this reckless, spendthrift policy, when the amount we shall have to send out of the country for interest every y-ear will exceed the amount that we shall be able to borrow in the- year. If Britain were sending away to other countries four pounds per head of her population for interest, amounting to one hundred and eighty millions a year, the Government responsible for it would not last a month. Notwithstanding these* ever-increas-ing burdens, there is no indication that a more prudent policy will be adopted in the future; on the contrary,, what with the Dreadnought gift and ; liis compulsory military service— : which ~vs-jvmsing resentment and opposition from one ~eii& oi the coravtry to the other —.sis hundred thousand, of additional taxation is wrung from the people, while it is admitted by many competent judges that an expenditure , of less than half this sum, spent in, encouraging the volunteer sys- . tern, would give us a more efficient army, an army of MEN instead of an army of kids. Thei only hope for the country ia to drive the Government from office.